April Showers Bring Outside Help?
by Southpaw
Summary: Castle and Beckett's latest crime scene comes with a rather odd weapon... and dying message.
1. Chapter 1

I'm back again! And NO, I haven't given up on "Fullmetal Detective"… it's just been so long since the last time I put any real effort into it, that I needed a little something else to get me back into the writing groove (not to mention I'm still stuck in exposition mode over there). So here we have another crossover, and as with my House fic, those of you who know me well should know this was coming. Believe me, it's a lot sooner than I thought, too – we're only 1.5 seasons in, and I'm already delving into it.

Anyway, without further ado, here's "April Showers Bring… Outside Help?"

~*~

Chapter 1

Richard Castle and Kate Beckett crossed the threshold into the small apartment which happened to be their latest crime scene. A quick scan of the room showed three forensic technicians inspecting broken objects and dusting for fingerprints. Esposito and Ryan were standing off to the side talking with a distraught looking woman who the writer and detective both determined from a quick glance was probably the victim's wife. They crossed over to the bedroom door, and the officer overseeing the First Response team made space for them to go in.

The bedroom was a mess of broken objects too. They stepped gingerly around mirror shards and broken light bulbs, to see how the body had been found. Castle saw something on the floor that attracted his attention, while Beckett observed that the victim was a middle-aged man who was slumped over his desk. The techs rolled him over to expose a knife wound in his belly. They also picked up his hand to show her a bloody finger. She looked back to the desk, where she was now able to see the dying message he had written.

Esposito and Ryan wrapped up their conversation with the grieving wife, and joined Beckett at the desk in the bedroom. "The victim is 41-year-old Haru Inoue," Esposito explained. "The wife says she was at her parents' the last few days, and has no idea how this could have happened."

"Get a list of the places she went while she was there, and check them out."

"Sure thing."

"Hey, check this out," Castle said, displaying what he had found. "Matchbox cars! These things were huge twenty years ago… no pun intended. That's an odd thing for a man his age to have lying around."

Beckett was about to tell him to stay on track, when she noticed what else was on the floor behind him. There was an extensive set of dominos, tubes, tracks, cords, pulleys, and marbles arranged with the intent to accomplish something. "Or perhaps this was the weapon," she mumbled.

Ryan picked up the dying message from the desk, and held it with the writing facing away from him. "Anyone know Chinese?"

Castle looked at it. "Nope. And actually, that's not Chinese, it's Japanese. See these complex characters? All of Chinese is like that. In Japanese, some of the writing is expressed by individual syllables, like these simpler characters."

"Okay… Does anyone know Japanese?"

Castle answered again. "Nope, but I know someone who does." He whipped out his cell phone, found a name in his contact list, and placed the call. "Hi, Yuusaku-san? It's Rick Castle. I'm at a crime scene, and… yeah, yeah, very funny. Anyway, there's a note here that was written in Japanese, and I was wondering if you could come take a look at it. You're busy? That's a shame, it would have been great to see you. What? Oh, okay." He ended the call and turned back to the detectives. "He says he's a little buried in his writing right now, but he's sending someone else over."

'Another writer,' Beckett thought. With all the different circles Castle travelled in, one of his contacts eventually had to be a writer, and one who knew Japanese, to boot. "He write anything we've heard of?"

"Night Baron?"

"Mysteries… figures…" Beckett rolled her eyes and continued her investigation of the scene.

Ryan and Esposito stepped closer to Castle, to make way for her. "Yuusaku _Kudo_," Ryan asked. "Not only is he famous, but so is his wife."

"Man, she is hot," Esposito interjected.

Castle grinned. "I know. I hope she's the one he's sending!"

They heard raised voices coming from the direction of the front door of the apartment, and went back out to the living room. Castle assumed it was his guest having trouble being admitted into the crime scene, so he walked towards the door with his arms out. "Yukiko-san, it's been too…" He stopped short when the argument came to a crashing halt. The officer at the door, as well as a young Japanese boy and girl showed him a trio of blank stares. "You're not Yukiko Kudo," he said with a barely noticeable twinge of disappointment.

The boy held out his hand. "Yukiko Kudo is my mother. My name is Shinichi; it's nice to meet you." His friend was blushing furiously. "This is my friend, Ran Mouri."

"Hello," Ran said while Castle gripped Shinichi's hand.

Castle made a shallow bow. "Hajimemashite." This surprised everyone in the room, particularly the two teens. "Uh… don't expect much more, your dad only taught me a couple phrases."

"It's okay," Shinichi said. "It was very good pronunciation."

Castle beamed at the compliment. "Your English is pretty good too, I was surprised."

"May I look at the room?"

Castle looked at Beckett, who shook her head 'no'. There was no way she was about to let a teenager wander around her crime scene. Castle pleaded silently with his eyes. She was surprised at how easily she gave in to him. He turned to the kids and said "Yuusaku-san called you to fill in for him. If he trusts you, then so do I."

Shinichi was so excited to get started, that he was already half way to the box of latex gloves by the time Castle was finished speaking. He brought back an extra pair for Ran, and then started his own inspection of the apartment. Beckett was amazed at how professional he was being.

Ran bowed to Castle and Beckett. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Beckett said.

Ran put on her gloves, and went to see what Shinichi was looking at. She noticed that he could tell from a quick walk around the living room that everything interesting about this particular case would be found in the bedroom. "Shinichi… if the primary scene is in the bedroom, why are the forensics guys all out here?"

"They probably think they got everything they could from the bedroom, and are just covering their bases."

"Oh, that makes sense." Ran wrapped her arms around one of Shinichi's. He blushed at the contact, but since he knew why she was doing it, he gently led her towards the main area of the crime scene. Once they were inside, she discovered that she was able to let go, and they searched the room for anything that looked like a clue.

Shinichi was immediately drawn to the same thing Castle had been upon entry. He knelt down and studied the intricacy of the apparatus. Ran found the note, and brought it over to him.

"Do you recognize this, Ran?"

"Yeah, it kinda looks like Pythagora Switch."

"That's right… I wonder why the killer would have set up such an elaborate mechanism just to kill a guy."

Ran held up the page with the dying message so Shinichi could read it. "I found this on the desk. It sounds…weird."

Castle and Beckett stood in the bedroom doorway. "Did you find anything," Beckett asked.

"Yes," Shinichi replied. "I definitely think this apparatus was part of the murder weapon. What I don't understand is why the murderer took the time to set it up, and what the dying message means."

"You mean to tell me you don't know what it says?"

"Oh, I know what it says. I just don't get why he would have written 'All I did was get out of the shower.'"

"Uh, guys," Castle interjected. "Where'd the body go?"

~*~

End Chapter 1

A/N: I figure the timing for this story is from those flashbacks when Shinichi and Ran were in New York, when they met Ms Vineyard the first time… even though that would have been in the mid-1990's, and Castle is set in the present decade, it seemed like the best opportunity to bring the two sides together.

"Pythagora Switch" is basically a Rube Goldberg machine, and is featured as part of Japanese children's tv programming.

The contents of the dying message are a reference to a popular Philadelphia morning radio show ^_^.


	2. Chapter 2

Here we go with installment #2! I've actually already started in on chapter 3, and have been meaning to post this, but hadn't quite gotten there yet because there was … oh, you guys don't really need to hear that excuse. On with the show!

~*~

Chapter 2

At some point between the time when the people from the NYPD left the bedroom, and Shinichi and Ran entered it, the victim's body had disappeared. They stared at the vacant chair and each other for a few seconds.

"Maybe he wasn't dead," Esposito posited.

"He was," Beckett insisted. "They rolled him over to show me where he bled out from a knife wound in his stomach."

Castle tried to come up with his own brand of explanation. "Maybe it was a fake wound. That's some really good special effects!"

Beckett glared at him. "We all know what blood is supposed to look like, and that wound and that finger were not covered in ketchup, paint, or any other accessible substitute – it was blood."

"Maybe someone came in and pulled the body out the window and down the fire escape," Ryan asked.

"That's unlikely," Shinichi said from where he stood by said window. "A frame this old is too noisy to slide open without handles. We would have heard it, even from the front door. Also, there's no evidence of it being forced open from the outside."

Esposito looked at the window frame and sill. "He's right, there's no way the victim could've had help."

"Maybe his body was possessed by a ghost," Castle added in the scariest voice he could muster. Ran shrieked and wrapped herself around Shinichi's arm again. Beckett rolled her eyes, and Esposito and Ryan tried their best to hide their amusement.

Ran eased herself out of the embarrassing embrace. "Sorry, I get jumpy sometimes. He's not really a ghost, is he?"

"No," Shinichi assured her. "There's no such thing as ghosts. The simplest explanation is that he wasn't dead. Did you recover the knife?"

"No," said Beckett.

"I see. I'm guessing that the mess is being used to cover up the real weapon. You should test the blood from the note, and check it against his health records."

Even more than how easily she gave in to Castle, Beckett couldn't believe she was taking instruction from a kid who couldn't have been older than 15. But she nodded to Shinichi and sent Esposito and Ryan on their way – one to check the wife's alibi, and one to follow up with the forensic technicians.

"So," Beckett asked, "what do you think the weapon is?"

"I think he was dosed with something non-lethal, but still strong enough to make him seem dead. If he really had been in the shower, perhaps it was something that activates on contact with water. When he opened the door, it started the machine, eventually breaking a container with the chemical inside, which then mixed with the steam from the bathroom. Who was the first person to find him?"

Castle and Beckett looked at each other, and promptly turned to file out of the bedroom. Shinichi and Ran followed them.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Beckett said. "We'd like to ask you a few more questions."

Mrs Inoue dabbed her eyes with a tissue. "My husband just died. Haven't I been tortured enough for one day?"

Castle was always awed by how easily Beckett showed compassion to each victim they encountered. "I'm sorry, just a little longer, and then we'll be out of your way," she said. The wife nodded.

"Do you know why your husband would want to fake his own death?"

Mrs Inoue looked at the boy in shock, and then turned her attention to Beckett. "I'm sorry did he say 'faked'? Who is this kid?"

"He's the son of a friend of mine," Castle answered quickly.

"Shinichi Kudo; I'm a detective." The woman refused to acknowledge his outstretched hand. Instead, she rushed into the empty bedroom.

"Please answer the question, Ms Inoue," Beckett said.

The other woman hesitated. "I'm sorry, detectives, but he never let on that anything was wrong. I know you probably think I should be angry, but right now I'm more worried than anything else. Please find him and bring him home."

One of the forensic technicians came up to them. "Detectives, there appear to be fingerprints on the window handle. One of the fingers is fainter than the rest."

"Probably the first finger of the right hand, where the blood was already dry," Beckett said. "That's our vic'."

"That's what we figured. One of the guys is checking the outside of the frame for the matching set."

"Thanks, I'll compare them to what we have on record."

Shinichi turned to the tech. "While you're at it, please test how hard it is to close the window from the outside."

"No problem."

Beckett looked at her three remaining companions. "I think they can finish the rest up here. Shall we?" She motioned to the front door, and they filed out. Before she closed the door, she once more assured the victim's wife that they would do all they could to solve the case.

When they got down to the street, they stopped to regroup. "I'm gonna head back to the precinct and start to put some of this information together," Beckett said. She looked pointedly at Castle. "You guys just chill out for a while."

He was about to protest, when it dawned on him what she meant. "Why don't I take these two back to my place? I have to check in with Alexis anyway." Beckett nodded, and they parted ways.

* * *

"Ojamashimasu," Ran said when Castle opened the door to let them into his apartment.

Alexis and Martha were in the kitchen. They looked up when the trio entered the room. "Mother, Alexis, I'd like you to meet Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mouri. Kids, this is my daughter and my mother." Shinichi and Ran bowed. Martha came over and shook both their hands.

"Dad, what are they doing here?"

"They're in town visiting Shinichi's parents."

"No, I mean _here_…"

Castle grinned, trying to make light of a joke nobody found particularly funny. "Well, his father is a friend of mine. There was a weird note left at the latest crime scene, which was written in Japanese. My first thought was to call in his dad, but he was busy and sent them instead."

Alexis nodded. "So… now what?"

"Now… we hang out here for a while," her father answered. "Beckett went back to the precinct to start to arrange the accumulated information."

"Isn't that something you usually do with her?"

"They were trying to be nice about getting me away from the action," Ran said quietly. Castle and Shinichi tried their best to deny it, but Ran shook her head. "It's okay, I don't mind. I don't really want to be there anyway."

Alexis came to their rescue. "Wanna hang out here while the guys go do their thing?" Martha gripped her shoulder approvingly.

"Really? It's okay?"

"Of course it's okay. Right, dad?"

"That was the plan I had in mind," Castle said.

Alexis grinned. She grabbed onto Ran's hand and dragged her into the living room.

Martha picked up her purse from the kitchen table. "Well, I guess I'll take that as my cue – places to go, people to see, and all that. See you all later!" She whispered something in Shinichi's ear as she was leaving, that made him chuckle.

After the door closed, Castle decided he had to know what his mother told the boy.

Shinichi was still laughing. "She wants me to make sure you don't get yourself into too much trouble."

"Ha, ha," Castle said sarcastically. "My mother and her sense of humor…"

"It seems like you and I have a lot in common," Shinichi observed.

"Isn't that the truth," Castle said with a wry smile. He poured a glass of water for each of them while they sat at the kitchen table and chatted. "The difference is that your mother doesn't get cast as the 'crazy grandma'."

"Even if she did, she'd relish the opportunity to show off her skills of disguise."

Castle was about to make another comment about his own mother, when the phone rang. So instead, he picked it up. "Castle…"

~*~

End Chapter 2

A/N: Hopefully I won't be including so much straight Japanese anymore (even though this is only the second instance of a single phrase)… I mostly put this one in to demonstrate the language/ culture barrier from Ran's perspective. Shinichi would already know how to behave when entering an American home.

I have a big twist in the works for chapter 3, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled!


End file.
